Ok, I’m going to say a thing…Children drawing rainbows and putting them in windows = Cute and sweet. The Tory government STEALING Pride flags and washing over them with pro-NHS rhetoric is fucking appalling. Do you know how hard LGBTQ+ people fought for those pride NHS badges!?
— ClockworkSJ (@ClockworkSJ) May 22, 2020
Support for the NHS
Across the country, households are standing on their doorsteps once a week and clapping to show their support and appreciation for the NHS and other key workers. Kids are drawing rainbows and parents are showing them off proudly (and rightly so) in their windows.Others have taken to using rainbow flags to show their support, and we’re not talking flags with images of rainbows on them – they are literally using Pride flags. This is puzzling for some and doesn’t make much sense. The Pride flag was created for a very specific reason with 6 colours with each having a very specific and intentional meaning with a lot of history behind it too. It was created as a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. Using the Pride flag to show support for the NHS feels disrespectful to the community.the pride flag has an important meaning and history to lgbt
the nhs deserve their own symbol which has its own meaning rather than taking the lgbt flag as their own. also can homophobes stop buying pride flags!!!!!! — charlie ✿ (@CharliePoop_) May 23, 2020
No other symbol would be borrowed or used for 2 different purposes or meanings. Doing so is like saying “oh, that thing doesn’t matter and it belongs to anyone so we’ll just use it for this now”. This would not happen with any other logo or symbol, so why is it ok to do this with the Pride flag.Not to get political or anything but in the UK we have the rainbow to support the nhs and just recently they’ve said that “They’re going to use the rainbow FLAG as a way to honor them.” now excuse me but im pretty sure the pride flag belongs to the lgbt community. Not the nhs 1/?
— I̵s̶a̸b̷e̶l̶ ̴🌸 | They/them (@jackaspedicey) May 23, 2020
Companies changing their pride products into NHS rainbow products… proof that they never cared about lgbt+ issues, they just cared about what was trending. https://t.co/Ax3tCkqTcR
— neil (@neil_anderthol) May 22, 2020
Using the Pride Flag
Let me be clear, the issue here isn’t children drawing rainbow images, the issue is (even homophobic) individuals, companies and the government itself literally thinking it is ok to use the LGBT rainbow flag for the NHS instead.Online shops have been accused of ignorance as they sell LGBT+ pride banners rebranded as “Thank You NHS” flags. This is just one example of the systematic erasure and rebranding of LGBT+ symbology that we have been experiencing for decades.As nice as it is to see the pride flag everywhere, it’s deeply offensive that homophobic people and Tories are flying the pride flag and calling it the NHS flag. People have died for that flag and still due to fight for what it stands for. And yes, people die for the NHS…
— NatesWorld (@ItsNatesWorld) May 23, 2020
Plymouth Citybus even rebranded what is usually their Pride bus and changed it’s meaning to the NHS instead.My grandad who is a staunch “I’ve got nothing against them, but I don’t want to know about it” has put this up out front and refuses to accept it’s an LGBT pride flag pic.twitter.com/SAzKWgCbls
— James (@J3Lyon) May 4, 2020
When people ask us every year “why do you even need Pride” or make comments like “we don’t get straight pride”. This is why. In short, leave the Pride flag alone and stop trying to erase our history. Why is it that when we use the flag during Pride month we are accused of “throwing it in people’s faces”, yet somehow this is ok? The following is taken from a recent article by Forbes:🌈 Rainbows have become synonymous with hope and the NHS during the current pandemic, so we thought what better way to show our thanks to our amazing NHS and key workers, than to re-brand our Pride bus to our rainbow ‘NHS’ bus? 🌈 Look out for the bus on our roads soon! pic.twitter.com/yqq6OLNjq2
— Plymouth Citybus (@plymouthbus) May 16, 2020
One study into the impact of coronavirus on the LGBT+ community by Queer Voices Heard suggests just under six in 10 (57%) in the U.K. LGBT Community fears they will be worse off after the pandemic. Early signs suggest there is already evidence that might be the case.
The NHS logo
The thing that is so puzzling in all of this is that the NHS already have their own symbol. They have a logo and iconic blue and white colours. Would it not make more sense to use a blue and white flag instead or use images of the actual NHS logo?Many even fear that next year when we are able to hold physical Pride celebrations again, right wing people are going to complain that we are using the “NHS symbol” – despite the fact that the Pride flag has been used by us for more than 40 years.But that should mean they deserve their own flag. The NHS is something to be proud of and it needs a symbol. But using the LGBT pride flag erases the work of the LGBT community and is being used by right wing individuals to erase our existence. Homophobes should not fly our flag. pic.twitter.com/1NfYcWqps8
— NatesWorld (@ItsNatesWorld) May 23, 2020
so are all of the uk gays ready for the entire media to call us disrespectful snowflakes who hate the nhs for wanting to use the rainbow flag in pride month
— bex 🐝💛 (@bexcelsior14) May 24, 2020
The current situation means uncertainty for almost everyone, and these are unprecedented circumstances for millions of people. Many LGBTQ+ people are worried about their future and what recent statements and changes will mean for them.
The Pride flag does represent a hard-fought battle for basic human rights and its reinvention as a ‘Thank You NHS Flag’ is disrespectful and at best, contentious for some in the LGBTQ+ community. 
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